Saturday sees the latest edition of the Ebor Festival draw to a close. Exploding into life on Wednesday afternoon, with City Of Troy’s bludgeoning success in the Juddmonte International, the meeting looks all set to end with a bang.
The opening Strensall Stakes and City Of York Stakes provide the Group class action on a seven-race card, but from a betting perspective, the titular Ebor Handicap invariably generates the most turnover.
1m6f is the trip for this stamina-sapping affair, with the £500,000 in total prize money making the centrepiece of the Saturday card one of the richest races of its type. Such riches all but ensure a maximum field of 22, and this year is no exception.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a big Saturday event in Britain without a strong Irish challenge. Our friends from the Emerald Isle have landed the Ebor three times in the past five years and look set to make a strong assault in 2024.
O’Brien’s Queen to Claim the Crown?
Plundering global Group races with unprecedented frequency, Aidan O’Brien is no stranger to success at this meeting and duly bagged all three Group class contests on the opening day. However, victory in this ultra-competitive affair has proved more elusive for the Ballydoyle maestro. O’Brien has, in fact, won this race only once – that success delivered by the Mick Kinane-ridden Mediterranean back in 2001.
That’s a long wait by O’Brien’s standards, but the market suggests it may end in 2024, with his four-year-old Galileo gelding, Queenstown, currently shading favouritism in most lists. Mastering 21 rivals over a mile and three quarters may sound like a tough assignment – for Queenstown, it may come as a welcome relief. Handed the unenviable burden of chasing Kyprios around in his homework, his past two outings have seen him finish a gallant but unthreatening second to the current king of the staying hill. Dropping into handicapping company for the first time, he may be the class act in this field.
Hipop Carries Mullins Hopes
Whatever the race, flat or National Hunt, Willie Mullins is a man to be feared. The master of Closutton has grabbed Ebor gold twice since O’Brien last won the race – most recently when saddling dual-purpose star Absurde to victory in 2023. Like O’Brien, Mullins sends just the one to post this year, in the shape of the seven-year-old Hipop De Loire.
Unlike Absurde, who we knew all about, this ex-German runner is more difficult to assess. However, a Listed class win in a German contest over this trip suggested a mark of 103 may not be beyond him, and he warmed up nicely when second in a Maiden Hurdle at the Galway Festival.
Magical Success for De Bromhead?
Queenstown may head the betting, but he isn’t the only runner in this field used to plying his trade at a higher level. A Grade 3 over hurdles and second in the Grade 2 Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival, Henry De Bromhead’s Magical Zoe is a classy operator over jumps and no slouch on the level.
Breaking her duck in a maiden at Down Royal in June, she stepped up on that effort to go down by just over a length in a Group 3 event over this trip at Fairyhouse in July. Inconvenienced by traffic problems in the straight that day, she looks a danger to all off a mark of 102.
Cromwell’s Mate No Back Number
Thanks to the exploits of Cheltenham Festival heroes Flooring Porter, Limerick Lace, Inothewayurthinkin, Vanillier, and others, Gavin Cromwell is most associated with success over jumps, but, as one of the shrewdest operators in the game, is a man to be respected wherever he shows up.
As such, his sole representative, My Mate Mozzie, may be worth a second look in the market. A Grade 3 Novice hurdle winner, his latest flat effort saw him finish a staying on third in the Copper Horse Handicap at Royal Ascot. He’s up two pounds for that but had a solid prep when third in a Grade 3 at the Galway Festival and should be running on late in the piece.
Yash to Grab the Cash for Harrington?
Last but not least, Yashin from the yard of the exceptional Jessica Harrington. Boasting seven Cheltenham Festival wins and four British Group 1 triumphs on the flat, Harrington has a well-earned reputation as one of the finest dual-purpose operators in the sport.
Yashin is among the outsiders here, having flopped last time out in the Northumberland Plate, but his previous form reads well. Two and a half lengths behind Queenstown in a Listed event at Navan in April, he closed that gap to just under two lengths in the Group 3 Savill Beg Levmoss Stakes and is two pounds better off at the weights with the O’Brien-trained favourite under these conditions.
